TLDR
McDonald's has launched a media network selling ads across its app, kiosks, menu boards and drive-thru screens, backed by 220 million loyalty members. McDonald's wants the network to become a US$1 billion business over time. The pilot covers about 450 US restaurants; Australia is not included.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The four screens and what they sell
McDonald's announced its Media Network at Investor Day on 23 September 2026, opening four ad placements to external buyers: the mobile app, in-restaurant self-order kiosks, digital menu boards, and drive-thru order screens.[1] The pilot runs in approximately 450 company-owned US restaurants.
The targeting backbone is the loyalty program, which carries nearly 220 million 90-day active members across 70 markets.[2]
A billion-dollar ambition
Morgan Flatley, McDonald's Executive Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer, set the commercial target plainly at Investor Day. "We are at the beginning of our aspiration to build McDonald's Media Network into a billion-dollar business across the McDonald's system over time," Flatley said.[1]
Flatley pitched it to franchisees as low-cost revenue. "It's an opportunity to generate revenue for the system, with little in the way of upfront costs, no operational complexity, and no disruption from your customer experience," Flatley said.[3]
No timeline was attached to the US$1 billion figure.
Where McDonald's sits in retail media
Retail media networks, where a retailer sells targeted ad space to brands using its own customer data, have moved from a niche tactic to a mainstream revenue line in the past three years. Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect dominate in the United States; in Australia, Coles 360 and Woolworths' Cartology have normalised the model for grocery advertisers.
McDonald's is selling screens that customers look at while they order, in the restaurant and at the drive-thru, rather than only ads in an app or on a website.
The network sits inside McDonald's Consumer > NEXT strategy, set out at the same Investor Day, which treats loyalty data and digital infrastructure as a revenue line rather than a retention tool.[1] It also puts McDonald's up against the delivery apps that carry its orders, since Uber Eats and DoorDash both sell ads to brands inside their apps.
No advertisers or agency partners have been named in launch announcements, and McDonald's has not said which categories of brand it will accept.[3]
Australia is not included
The launch is US-only. McDonald's has made no announcement about extending the Media Network to McDonald's Australia or the MyMacca's app, and no timeline for international markets appears in the Investor Day materials.[1] MyMacca's sits inside the same global loyalty infrastructure that provides the 220-million-member figure, but participation in that data pool does not mean participation in the ad network.
If the network comes to Australia, it would add drive-thru and kiosk screens to a retail media market already led by Coles 360 and Cartology. For now the test is in about 450 US restaurants.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
